Anna Soden grew up in York and went to York Youth Theatre for a decade. She’s back in the city this Christmas as Dave the cow
You're back in York - in 2020 you played the Fairy in York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime which toured around the city.
It was a really special thing. It kind of felt like a fever dream, it was a little explosion of glitter in an apocalypse. Working in that cast of five with a skeleton creative team was a unique bonding experience, I really made such dear friends on that show, and I'm so happy to be reunited with lovely Robin this year. Performing on that little pop up stage, our dressing rooms being disabled toilets/ storage cupboards, touring to hotels, schools, churches, village halls. It felt like a really gorgeous way to do panto, it was bursting with a sense of community and local identity. I'd love to see more theatre being made like that, not just when there's a deadly pandemic.
Now you’re playing Dave the cow - both the front and the back half - in Jack and the Beanstalk which you call 'a massive career moo-ve'.
I thought, that sounds FUN and said yes. It'll certainly be a career move, in that it'll be a job in my career, and I will definitely say moo a lot.
Have you appeared in any other pantomimes?
Yes! I really get around the country! My first was the rock and roll pantomime at Liverpool Everyman- everyone played instruments, it was Sleeping Beauty and I was the fairy and got to fly, and sing Golden Slumbers- a Beatles song, in Liverpool!! Then I did Chipping Norton as Boy Scout and a Weasel in Rapunzel. Last year I was at Derby Arena, which was a totally different vibe again! I played the Genie (and a lot of other roles), I had a ball! Every city/town does panto SO differently so it's really interesting experiencing them all.
You’re an actor-musician and writer - which comes first – acting, music or writing?
Acting comes first, I trained in straight acting at Mountview, and I've explored writing and music and comedy since then (I play bass and trumpet mostly) and love it when I can incorporate singing, or playing instruments into a job, and it's ace to put on my own work, but I'm an actor first and foremost!
Any unusual interests or hobbies away from the stage?
Lying on the floor when it's about to rain, producing dairy products, eating grass, and tarot reading.
Jack in the Beanstalk is at York Theatre Royal Dec 8 - Jan 7.
yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
READ MORE: Christmas shows and pantos in and around Yorkshire 2023
